UAE eases COVID-19 restrictions on travelers from Uganda

By David Ochieng Mbewa

Uganda’s civil aviation authority confirmed that the United Arab Emirates has eased COVID-19 travel protocols imposed on travelers from Uganda imposed due to the Omicron variant.

Travelers from Uganda to Dubai are no longer required to undertake a second COVID-19 PCR test within six hours prior to their departure, according to a statement issued by the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.

Passengers arriving on international flights leave the international arrivals lobby after they have been screened and cleared for any symptoms of the novel coronavirus at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. /Getty Images

Instead, travelers now need only one PCR test undertaken within 48 hours from a laboratory approved by the Ministry of Health.

In December, the UAE lifted travel ban restrictions imposed just a month before on travelers from 12 African countries, including Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Among the conditions for entry of passengers from those countries were travelers had to obtain a negative COVID-19 PCR test 48 hours prior to departure and a negative rapid-PCR test at the departure airport. Passengers also had to be tested on arrival.

Uganda, however, was not among those countries listed but it was one of three other countries, including Ghana and Rwanda, whose passengers still had to take the three tests.